Croydon 6's - 16th April 2005 - Men's Tournament

Team Sheet (Shirt Number)
Dan (1)
Phil (2)
Sharky (3)
Matt (5)
Scottie (10)
Steve (11)
Dickon (13)
Jeff (14)
Mike (16)

Match Report
Well, what can I say. Our first run out as a men's team in over six months. Though we all play regularly this weekend proved that training together from time to time does no harm. It took us until the fourth and final match to really get into the swing of things, but, we had a good time and the beers in London that night were well worth it.

Thank goodness it didn't rain. It can really destroy tournaments like that. Despite the cool weather there were a huge number (25) of teams in residence on the three (2 of which were uber small) lacrosse pitches in Sarf East London that fine Saturday morning. A fine body of men wearing pick shirts rocked up and got a lot of strange looks. However, we acquitted ourselves rather well. Special mentions must go to Jeff and Mike as Exile debutants and also to Matt and Phil providing fine cover from Bath City.

Our first game was against Penarth, five of whom turned up 3 minutes before the start of the game which proved to be rather fortunate for us. They borrowed a keeper from East Grinstead and we were off. Let me say something about these pitches. They were tiny!!! For this first game I managed to get to the half way line and take a shot (though it was crap and slow) and get back to the goal even before the keeper at the other end had saved it!

Against Penarth, we had a very good start. We were 4-0 up at the half. Then it turned pooh. Basically we didn't defend close enough and let them through to take some excellent shots. It all came down to communication, the ability to do which evaded us until later on in the tournament. So in the end we drew with a very capable Penarth 5-5.

Goalscorers:
Jeff 2
Sharky 2
Matt 1

We were then drawn against Cambridge University. We felt that we had a good chance against the students, but boy were we wrong. They have evidently gelled very well as a team by getting to the final of the Minor Flags and Southern Universities lacrosse tournament. We still failed to communicate and got dicked on 5-1. A bit of a shame but we got that loss under our belt and felt less pressure throughout the rest of the tournament.

Goalscorer:
Phil 1

Our highlight of the day, Buckhurst Hill, followed. With the majority of the crowd watching from the sidelines and looking for a powerful aggressive game, they would not be disappointed. One Buckhurst Hill player had a particularly torrid time with several large takeouts and being shot at in the helmet by his own team-mate. The teams were very evenly matched for the majority of the game. However, problems began to arise with a double sending off for us, not really sure why. In the end we lost 4-2. We showed promise but were disappointed as we felt we could have had 'em.

Goalscorers:
Phil 1
Matt 1

Our final game of the Intermediate division was drawn against Spencer. Bath City have seen rather a lot of Spencer recently and those members of the team were looking forward to the meet. Basically, in this game it came together and we won. We passed and ran well with good communication. That's all you need for a lacrosse game and so we won 5-1.

Goalscorers:
Matt 1
Jeff 2
Sharky 2

That brought an end to our SEMLA Sixes campaign. We came fifth out of seven in the Intermediate Division.

The table of all three divisions is below.

Senior Division			Intermediate Division
Position	Team	Points	Position	Team	Points
1	Reading	62	1	Croydon	51
2	Hillcroft 1	48	2	East Grinstead	39
-	Purley	48	3	Penarth	38
4	Hitchin	41	4	Buckhurst Hill	33
5	Walcountian Blues	11	5	Bath Exiles	28
6	Hillcroft 2	2	6	Spencer	22
			7	Cambridge	16

 

Minor Division Red			Minor Division Green
Position	Team	Points	Position	Team	Points
1	Walcountian Blues A	86	1	Welwyn	65
2	University of East Anglia	47	2	Croydon A	54
3	University of Northampton	44	3	University of Gloucester	49
4	University of Southampton 1	35	4	University of Hertfordshire	28
5	Canterbury	16	5	East Grinstead A	20
6	Hitchin A	4	6	University of Southampton	1

So, how did it all end.  I stayed long enough to see the Minor Final between Walcountain Blues A and Welwyn and the Intermediate Final between East Grinstead and Croydon.

It was very heartening to see high standards of lacrosse in both these finals.  With time, all these lacrosse playing students, just like we were, will filter into the system and SEMLA will grow.  Considering the North's reluctance to let in more teams, hopefully the south will soon explode in terms of lacrosse.  Both finals that I say were hard fought contests with Walcountian Blues A beating Welwyn 8-3 and Croydon retaining the home honours against East Grinstead with a 3-2 win.

There were a lot of big hits going in with the odd foul, however, the teams were fairly well matched and the referees did a good job of keeping the game free flowing.

Before the senior final, there was a playoff between Purley and Hillcroft, with Hillcroft coming off better 3-2 to take a place in the final.  Is this season the end of the long dominance of the Pride?  Scottie stayed to watch the Senior Final and so we await a match report from him, however, Reading, who were looking on really good form, beat Hillcroft 7-5.

As for that night Sharky, Dickon and myself met up with Nicky ,the boobilicious physio, and Denny (another Exile) in the centre of London for a really good night.

If anyone has anything to add or photos etc. just email me.

Match Photos
Sharky - get those photos to me when you can.
Other Match Reports
c/o Spencer Lacrosse Club
c/o Walcountian Blues